Ala. prisoner indicted on solicitation to have judge, investigator killed

An Alabama woman, already in prison for trying to have a person murdered for financial gain, learned Friday she will face a new indictment: attempting to have a judge and investigator maimed or murdered.

Marie Billingsley, 59, was served notice of her indictment at the Tutwiler Prison for Women where she currently is incarcerated for those previous crimes, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange's office confirms.

Billingsley was convicted in December 2011 of criminal solicitation to commit murder and three counts of second-degree forgery. The AG's office presented evidence during a trial in Dallas County Circuit Court about Billingsley's scheme to murder a woman and collect approximately $400,000 of life insurance.

Billingsley solicited a third person to assist in the murder. The AG's office says that person decided to tell authorities of the murder plot. Strange's office said that while the third person did not know the victim's name, special agents worked to locate and identify the victim, thus preventing the murder. The AG's office says its agents also discovered Billingsley's forgeries of multiple life insurance policies.

In April, Billingsley was sentenced to 21 years for solicitation to commit murder and to two years for each of the three forgery convictions, with these sentences to run concurrently.

Two days after the sentencing, Strange's office presented additional evidence to a Dallas County grand jury, resulting in Billingsley's indictment on the following four counts:

criminal solicitation to commit murder by soliciting someone to murder the judge who had heard the trial of her previous case;

criminal solicitation to commit murder by soliciting someone to murder an investigator who had worked on the case;

criminal solicitation to commit first degree assault by soliciting someone to "disfigure seriously and permanently or to destroy, amputate or disable permanently a member or organ of (the judge's) body."

criminal solicitation to commit first degree assault by soliciting someone to "disfigure seriously and permanently or to destroy, amputate or disable permanently a member or organ of (the investigator's) body."

If convicted of the charges in the April indictment, Billingsley faces a potential penalty of life imprisonment for each charge of solicitation to commit murder, and 15 years to life imprisonment for each charge of solicitation to commit first-degree assault.

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